Capital District Kiwanis Initiative For Africa

By: Ayaz Siraj, Dulles Area Kiwanis President Elect


Last Sunday we had guest speaker Katherine Bronson come talk to us about the Capital District's Initiative for Africa. This meeting was one of the most fun, and informative meetings in our short DAK history. This meeting probably ranks up there with the Jeopardy meeting we had last year. We had folks there from the Leesburg club and the Arlington club which made the meeting even more fun.



I have a copy of the Power Point presentation on the Initiative For Africa that Kat showed and if you wish to review it again, I can send it to you by email (just post a comment and I'll send it your way). I would like to encourage all of you to donate as all it takes is $5 from each of us to help achieve the district's goal of $25,000. I would also like to encourage you to talk to your friends and family about this initiative as, it is my belief that everyone wants to help, but we have to ask them for the help.


All donations can be made by sending a check made out to the Capital District Kiwanis Foundation and mailed to

1601 Charrington Drive
Midlothian, VA 23113.

If you feel more comfortable giving the donation to me, I would be glad to send it in on your behalf. Your canceled check will serve as your receipt for tax purposes. This initiative is also listed in Facebook in the Causes section. If you are a Facebook member, you can join the cause and donate using Facebook. All transactions on Facebook are secure. Here's a link to the Facebook page: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/211955?m=de0957a2


Thank you for your help in this worthy cause.

RSS What?

by: Beryl Young, Dulles Area Kiwanis President

I am often asked by fellow Kiwanis members how I am able to "keep track of it all". All the meeting and project dates can get pretty overwhelming. Being the primary webmaster and the president requires me to constantly be aware of what is on the calendar at all times. However, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to help make it easier! The main one being using RSS feeds to keep track of updates on all my favorite webpages. If you've never used RSS now is a great time to learn! I will admit the concept of RSS took me awhile to grasp. The video above is a GREAT "dumbed down" explanation of RSS and how you can use it to streamline how you view the internet. If someone had shown me this video 2 years ago I would've been an RSS pro in half the time.

What is RSS? In a nutshell RSS alerts you when changes have been made to your favorite or most important webpages. No more forgetting that Kiwanis meeting because you never checked the website! RSS will tell you when an update has been made and shows you what that update is.

I personally use RSS to primarily track my favorite blogs. Instead of having to go an check each blog myself, my RSS reader (through google) tells me who has updated a blog and shows me all the new blog postings. I know parents in the school system where I work use RSS to track their child's school website. Once they RSS tag the school's main webpage, or the teacher's webpage, they get instant alerts when the pages are edited and changed.

Once you understand the ins and outs of how this technology works the possibilities are endless. I encourage you to explore the world of RSS and comment to let us know how it changes how you view the internet!